Bitange Ndemo

Professor Elijah Bitange Ndemo (born in Kisii County in South Western Kenya), a global technocrat and currently serving as Kenya’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium and the European Union. Professor Ndemo is also an academician and newspaper columnist with the Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation and its sister publication, the Business Daily. He currently serves part-time as a Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Nairobi’s Business School. He teaches and researches entrepreneurship and research methods, with most of his research work being focused on ICT within small and medium enterprises, and their influence on economic development in Kenya. Previously served as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication, from 2005 to 2013 under the former Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki. He was awarded the prestigious presidential Chief of the Burning Spear of Kenya (CBS) for his distinguished services in 2006.

Ndemo is regarded as one of the key people who oversaw a transformation in the Kenyan ICT Sector. As the Ministry of Information and Communication Permanent Secretary, he accomplished this through various ICT policies and projects such as the installation of undersea submarine cables, the development of business process outsourcing industry, the reduction in mobile termination rates (MTRs), initiating Kenya Open Data, and the growth of tech hubs such as iHub and mLab in Kenya through effective regulation.

Prof. Ndemo holds a PhD in Industrial Economics from the University of Sheffield in the UK, an MBA from the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) in the US and bachelor's degree in Finance from the University of Minnesota. He is the immediate past Honorary Chair of the Alliance for Affordable Internet (A4AI) and an Advisor to the Better than Cash Alliance, a global initiative to digitise payments. Provided by Wikipedia